Houseboat Hangouts

Some homeowners choose houses near the water to take advantage of recreation and relaxation. But for others, simply having access to the lake isn't enough, and they take to the water via houseboat.

"There are so many places around the lake, you buy a house that you think is on the water and you can't really even see the water," said Ryan Hamilton, general manager of the Port of Kimberling on Table Rock Lake. "When you're on a houseboat, you get a 360-degree view."

From May through October, houseboat owners flock to Table Rock Lake nearly every weekend, Hamilton said, noting many come from Springfield, St. Louis and Kansas City.

The views are only part of the water's appeal.

"There's not a mailbox, there's not an address," said Shelby Bodenhamer, director of marketing for Your Leisure Time LLC, a concierge service for Table Rock Lake boat owners. "They come to get away."

For Bill Perkin, owner of Perkin Marketing LLC, one of the best reasons to own a houseboat on Table Rock Lake is its proximity to his Springfield home.

"We can be from our house to the boat in 45 minutes," he said. "A lot of times, we'll go down, have dinner on the boat and come back."

Perkin is a longtime fan of the water, and he and his wife have owned homes at Lake of the Ozarks. After selling their condo there, the couple wanted to buy a cruiser to use at Table Rock, but there wasn't enough room for all the children and grandchildren. The solution: a four-bedroom, 16-by-80-foot houseboat, dubbed "Pricele$$," purchased three years ago.

"The houseboat made it safe for the grandkids, and everyone else could kind of do their own thing," Perkin said.

Lake Cumberland is known as the "Houseboating Capital of the World," and it sees millions of houseboaters each year. In honor of this, Kentucky governor Matt Bevin recently dedicated a bridge on Lake Cumberland in Monticello to houseboating.